Word of the Day
by Tech Duinn
Summary: Thirty days, thirty words, and thirty minutes. An attempt to get into Dean Winchester's head.
1. Imago

Imago

[ih-mey-goh]

_-noun_

1. An adult insect

2. Idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered into adult life

OOO

Dean finds himself curiously detached as his father's body goes up in flames, the smell of burning flesh and embalming fluid and some sort of herbal compound meant to ward off evil spirits that Sam whipped together from John's journal enough to make Dean heave but for the fact that his stomach has been surprisingly dormant for the past three days. He's had absolutely no appetite, and has only forced himself to eat so that Sam will follow the example.

He's been forcing himself to do a lot of things for that reason.

He's been forcing himself period. Because none of this seems real. His father can't be dead, can't be roasting on a pyre not ten feet from him, crumbling to ash and dissolving before his very eyes. His Dad isn't supposed to go out this way- without a fight, without barely a word or explanation.

He's supposed to go down in a blaze of glory, dragging that son of a bitch yellow-eyed demon with him, a smirk on his face and a victorious glint in his eye as that fucker screams in agony as it's not even afforded the luxury of being pulled back to hell, but is instead eradicated from the face of fucking existence. It's supposed to be impossible, but his Dad had found a way, _always_ found a way, and now Dean has to finish a job he never wanted to take in the first place.

His Dad has left him. Left him with a brother who's had the last of his innocence ripped from him in the past year, who might turn out to be evil, who Dean might have to kill. His dad has left him with an impossible choice, has left him all alone with this knowledge that makes the silence between him and Sam no longer companionable, but a lie, and Dean doesn't know if he can handle it.

Dean clenches his fingers around his dad's dog tags and for the first time realizes a very important truth.

_Nobody's perfect._

OOO

Episode(s): 2.02

Words: 338


	2. Agog

Agog

[uh-GOG]

-_Adjective_

1. Full of excitement or interest; in eager desire; eager, keen

OOO

It's pretty much standard operating procedure that whenever the latest damsel in distress starts batting their eye lashes at him- whether it begins before or immediately after the daring rescue has never really mattered for him- that the charm gets laid on full force. Usually he's trying to convince some chick or other to keep from turning them into the police at the same time that he's attempting to talk their panties off. Most times, if they were in any real danger they want next to nothing to do with him, a fact that he can respect, even if it frustrates him to no end.

This though, this is so far of standard that Dean is about as off balance as he can get, which is saying something, considering that not twenty minutes ago he was dangling upside-down from a warehouse ceiling while a Gnarl tried to strip his skin off to slowly dry-roast into Dean-Jerky.

"Really, I can't thank you enough," he- yes, HE- is saying in a breathy voice full of innuendo. "How can I ever repay you?"

Dean stretches his lips into a mockery of a smile, praying to every god he knows- and few he's sure he's just making up on the spot- that this dude gets the freaking message and stops fondling his arm. He deliberately takes a step back and says in a stern voice that gets him next to no reaction: "I don't need payment. Really. It's just worth it knowing…"

He trails off before he can go into his usual bit- the one where he says that just knowing that people are safe to now walk the streets is enough, that he doesn't need favors or thanks. His usual bit is most often taken as a come on, which, to be honest, it undeniably is, and he's pretty sure that this guy is going to take it that way too.

"Oh, you are just so _sweet._" The way the guy says it, all low and flirtatious and gravely, makes a shiver of near-revulsion race down Dean's spine, but the guy must take it for a sign of ill-suppressed lust, because he's suddenly smiling wider.

Behind him, Dean hears Sam snort none too subtly.

_Bitch._

OOO

Episode(s): None, any and all.

Words: 368

AN: It occurred to me as I wrote this that it might seem a little…homophobic. This was not my intention. I see Dean as a very "straight" individual, and this is how I thought he would react to being hit on.

Also, the "Gnarl" I mentioned is taken from episode 7.03 of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_.

"_Stop. Talking. About. Vomit!"_


	3. Frabjous

Frabjous

[FRAB-juhs]

_-adjective_

Wonderful, elegant, superb, or delicious.

OOO

It's the smell that hits him first, so familiar and pungent that it's like a punch to his already abused gut. Dean eyes the demon before him with a wary tilt of the head and a challenging glint in his eyes, carefully evaluating the best plan of attack. Should he take it from behind? Go for the side, or just dive straight for the middle so the rest of the dismemberment goes smoother?

"I'm gonna destroy you," he grits out quietly, readying his weapon for the first assault. This thing may have a reputation for felling men twice his size, but damned if he hasn't been training for this battle his entire life.

He's gonna massacre this mother if it's the last thing he does.

Carefully, Dean probes forward, trying to avoid the blood coating the area surrounding his foe. The first slice isn't long enough, didn't slice through the flesh clean, and he's reduced to sawing at it with his knife, trying to separate tough meat from sinew and bone. He spears a thick chunk and examines the raw, almost blue flesh, then takes his first bite.

"-is why it's usually so rare for a spirit to possess a person like that, but did you see the way…Dean, what the hell are you doing?"

"What?"

"You didn't honestly order that thing, did you?"

"That thing? Show a little respect, Sam. This is a fifty ounce, prime cut Omaha steak."

"It's a heart attack on a plate."

"Don't pay attention to him, baby."

"Dean…"

"He just doesn't understand-"

"You are such a dork."

"A dork whose gonna get a free dinner and his name above the bar."

OOO

Episode(s): None

Words: 278


	4. Hobbledehoy

Hobbledehoy

[HOB-uhl-dee-hoy]

_-noun_

1. An awkward, gawky young fellow.

OOO

Can't save everyone.

It was an important lesson every hunter had to learn. It was one Dean had learned the year he turned 23. He and his dad had been working a job up in Wichita, a girl who'd vanished one night out of a corn field. She and her friends had been pulling some stupid prank on a local farmer who'd called the cops on them a couple of weeks before for drag racing. They'd been two and a half hours into making a crop circle when one of her friends had noticed that the group had unexpectedly shrunk.

The search party had gone on for two weeks and 100 miles, and all they'd had to show for it was a burnt out, abandoned flashlight. There was no sign of a struggle, no way for the kid to have walked out of that field alone and in the dark, and no tracks, even if there had been.

Needless to say, it had peaked Dad's interest, and they had hunkered down in Wichita for nearly three weeks. Local records showed bupkis when it came to disappearances or unexplained deaths in the area, the farmer had checked out as a decent guy, if not a major kill-joy, and none of the girl's friends could tell them anything unusual about that night. No screams, no weird noises, no apparitions. The girl had vanished into thin air, like she was never there.

They had just begun to think it was one of those Field of Dream's situations when another local kid went missing. He'd been dared to spend the night alone in the corn field, and had disappeared by the next morning. Dean had been three hours from going into that corn field himself as bait when one of the kids had come to their motel door, looking guilty as hell. Zack explained that he had performed some kind of ritual he'd found out of a pawn-shop hoodoo book, one that made evil people disappear.

The girl had invited Zack to homecoming as a joke. He'd gone all out with a limo and flowers and the rest of the nine yards, only to go to her house and find out he'd been ditched for the captain of the Swim Team. The second kid to go missing had been an accident, on that freaked Zack out enough to come running to the "weirdos" who thought the corn was haunted.

Dean, his dad, and Zack all went out to the fields that night to trap the spirit in a dispersion circle so Zack could chant the counter measure, break the totem he'd use to summon the thing, and sent it back to the far reaches of nowhere.

Except that things rarely if ever went according to plan, and this time it resulted in Zack getting his insides all over his outsides. Dad had finished the spell, and Dean had felt immense satisfaction from breaking the totem, but there was still a massacred seventeen year old lying at their feet, one who had floppy brown hair and was so painfully tall and skinny that Dean had been shocked that the kid didn't cut people by nudging them with his elbows.

As Dean stripped Zack of anything that could link him to the Winchesters, he'd wondered if the kid liked Lucky Charms.

Two weeks later, he was allowed to run his first solo gig.

OOO

Words: 567

Episode(s): 1.01, Pre-series (sometime after Sam leaves for Stanford)


	5. Aeon

Aeon

[EE-uhn]

_-noun_

1. (In Gnosticism) one of a class of powers or beings conceived as emanating from the Supreme Being and performing various functions in the operations of the universe

2. eon; a long period of time

OOO

"You know," Dean said, studying the five foot one blonde in front of him, "you're nothing like I expected."

She responded with a tilt of the head and nothing more, her eyes tracing a slow circle around the clearing they stood in.

"Don't get me wrong," Dean volunteered, "I've seen spirits about ten times less bad-ass lookin' than you do a whole lot worse."

Her disconcertingly blue eyes fixed on him again, and he did his best to keep his movements calm and smooth as he re-loaded his shotgun.

"There was this one time, in Toledo; a five year old kid made his stepfather eat razor blades."

She took a step toward him, hand rising slowly to reach for his face.

"But you. I mean, Colombian neckties are usually reserved for, you know, Colombians. Kudos on the misdirection. You should give a seminar. Really."

He locked and pumped Bertha, training it on the spirit with a steady hand. She paused for a brief moment, and flickered, the image of the pristine girl in her yellow Sunday best before him replaced for the briefest of moments with one straight out of a horror show: throat slit and tongue hanging out of the gaping, ragged hole to loll against her collar bone, cuts and bruises all over her face and chest, blood seeping from a stab wound to the stomach, right arm bent at a gruesome angle, and blood running down the skirt of her dress that originated at her pelvis.

"I'm sorry, you know. But the man who- who did this is gone, and I can't let you hurt anyone else."

Dean fired when she took another step forward, but instead of disappearing like hot breath into the frigid night, she remained in front of him. Dean fired again, panic and surprise making his eyes widen, but the second shot had the same effect as the first, which was to say, none.

"Sammy, hurry it the hell up, would you?"

Dean batted at the incorporeal from with the butt of his shotgun, but it did nothing. The girl pressed forward, and her icy cold hand plunged into his neck. Dean fell to his knees, unable to even scream as every synapse fired with pain.

"Die." The girl whispered, then screamed as she was devoured by a blinding white light.

Dean coughed violently as he finally got air back into his lungs, able to hear Sam yelling his name as he crashed through the underbrush trying to make it to the clearing.

"Rest in peace," Dean croaked, and fell onto his back, blinking up at the stars. He wondered if that was where he'd sent her.

OOO

Words: 444

Episode(s): Sometime after 2.16

AN: This piece _does_ fit with eon, in that Dean and Sam's "function" is that they put ghost to rest.


	6. Rigmarole

Rigmarole

[RIG-muh-rohl]

_-noun_

1. An elaborate or complicated procedure.

2. Confused, incoherent, foolish, or meaningless talk.

OOO

"It's the pigs. They're everywhere!"

Dean has learned a few interesting thing this week: (1) Pixies are real, though they're less pixies and more a very specific manifestation of spirit; (2) They get mad as hell when you call them fairies; and (3) "Pixie dust" has the same kick as three joints of marijuana.

"I'm telling you, Dean, it's like a conspiracy. They look all cute and innocent a piggy, but really they're really trying to lull you into false sense of security. They want the world, Dean. All the mud and the mushrooms-"

"I'll be sure to tell Kermit. Now, will you hurry the hell up; we need to get to the car."

"No, Dean! We have to go back and get that pig. It's going to use its piggy powers to-"

"Punish them for eating pork chops. Yeah, I get it."

"Dean, you don't get it. They've taken you in. It's all part of their master plan. We think it's the ghost and fairies-"

"Seriously, dude? You haven't learned your lesson about using that word?"

"-and the vampires and-and- Justin Bieber that are destroying the world."

"Well, no argument on that last one."

"But IT'S ALL THE PIGS. We have to kill them Dean. Kill their beady little eyes and snorting-"

"Sure, yeah, we'll get right on that. First, let's go get some food, okay?"

"I'm so hungry right now…"

"We can get you a nice big plate of bacon."

OOO

Words: 242

Episode(s): 2.11

AN: Don't ask.


	7. Lucifugous

Lucifugous

[loo-see-FOO-guhs]

_-adjective_

Avoiding light

OOO

His first thought is that he must have had one helluva night. His second is _Ow_. His third is that his headache is way too intense and centralized to be a hangover, and his fourth is _Fuck_.

Because Dean remembers the night before and, as he had begun to suspect, alcohol and women hadn't been involved- well, at least, not in a good way. In fact, nothing even remotely pleasurable had been involved. His evening had started off crappy because he drew the short straw and had to dig up the crazy ass corpse of the dude who'd decided to go all masterpiece theatre on the locals by making them reenact the final few moments of his life- where he'd killed his brother for cheating with his girlfriend, then the girlfriend, then himself,- and gotten even worst when a torrential downpour had caught Dean four feet down into the grave, and had been topped off by some college girl happening along and freaking out on him. She'd banged him over the head a few times with her flashlight, all the while screaming things like "sicko," "freak," and "necrophiliac" at him.

In fact, Dean's a little shocked that he's not waking up in a cell right now- and he can tell he isn't by the lack of restraints. And the pine cone digging into his ass.

He groans and hauls himself up, using the trees next to him as support. The first few minutes are shaky, literally. He barely keeps himself up at first, and has to clamp down on his lip to keep from spewing last night's Philly all over the woods. He doesn't really succeed on that last part.

When he's done, he flops onto his back, pawing blindly for his cell phone and he throws an arm up to cover his aching eyes.

He's wet from the rain, and the nausea isn't gone even though his stomach has practically turned itself inside out. His head feels like busted ping-pong ball, and the unpleasant taste in his mouth makes him want to cut off his tongue so he doesn't have to taste anything so vile_ ever_ again. He caked in dirt, and his jeans are scratchy, and he can't stop shivering, and, goddamnit-

"Sam," he croaks into the phone, "where the hell are you?"

OOO

Episode(s): None

Words: 374


	8. Nympholepsy

Nympholepsy

[NIM-fuh-lep-see]

_-noun_

A frenzy of emotion, as for something unattainable.

An ecstasy supposed by the ancients to be inspired by nymphs.

OOO

Dean has had to carry Sam plenty of times. Despite Dad's cautious instance on leaving them a few towns over from where his hunt and in a motel under a pseudonym, the bad guys did occasionally try to track down the littlest Winchesters to exact revenge. Dean always tried to barricade them into the room whenever that happened, where all the doors and windows would be pre-salted and charmed against anything salt wouldn't keep at bay, but often enough they would be caught off guard at school or the library, or, on one occasion when'd he'd been particularly stupid, in the woods. Then they'd have no choice but to make a break for the church or the room. Sam would be able to keep up for a little while, but Dean would always end up hoisting his little brother over his shoulder.

It'd been a while since Dean had needed to carry Sam, though. Years maybe, since Sam started sprouting up in bouts of three and four inches every few months and his new and improved length allowed him to keep up with huge strides. It feels strange, and besides the awkwardness of Sam's height, there also his weight. Dean doesn't think he's ever felt like such a dea- so heavy.

There's a comforting familiarity to it, though, all the same. His shoulder has gone numb and every step feels like he's trying to move through water, but the pain is good. It's distracting, and proves to Dean that his brother is still with him.

He grips Sam's arm a little tighter as he ascends the stairs into the house Bobby's lead him to, cautious to not drop his brother. He shakes his head wordlessly when Bobby tries to give him a hand, and continues back to the bedroom, where a small moth eaten mattress promises relief to his abused and screaming back. But Dean finds himself frozen.

He doesn't know how long he stands there, staring at the broken springs and yellow-stained fabric, but when he finally moves to put Sam down, his entire body is shaking. He fixes the awkward position his brother falls into with stiff hands, thinking even as he does it that Sam will be pissed when he wakes up to find out Dean let him rest on such a filthy mattress.

Dean suddenly throws himself away from Sam as if he's been burned, the tears he managed to stem earlier stinging his eye like acid. He draws himself up, still shaking and suddenly cold all over. He tries to breathe and finds he can't- his throat is uncomfortably tight, the rubber ball that he somehow managed to lodge there expanding until Dean thinks he might die from the pressure.

He feels a hand cup his neck, then slid up into his hair. It presses his forward, and Dean buries his head into the proffered shoulder. The veil of silence in violently ripped aside, and Dean sobs so roughly he thinks his throat must be bleeding.

OOO

Words: 501

Episode(s): 2.21, 2.22


	9. Acta

Acta

[AK-tuh]

_-noun _

1. Official records, as of acts, deeds, proceedings, transactions, or the like.

OOO

Technically speaking, he'd been arrested a couple dozen or so times, and incarcerated six times. It just so happened that he'd had convincing enough fake IDs most of those times that his official record was relatively clean. Sure, there were minor offences like grave desecration, and one or two B&E's that he'd either managed to talk his way out of by proving he hadn't broken or stolen anything, or had skipped out on because most of the backwoods towns he frequented had hicks for cops, but when it came to major things like kidnapping, grand larceny, and murder, Dean had kept his nose clean. Until Sam started traveling with him.

Dean swears that kid's a bad luck charm.

Sammy didn't know he'd been jailed up before, of course. He and Dad had taken certain steps to make sure that Sam wasn't exposed to that kind of crap. Especially since Sam could be one persistent little shit when he got a bug up his ass, and, more often than not, that bug had something to do with how atypical their family was. Learning that Dean had spent time in jail would've only sent the kid off for months, and he didn't need that kind of example anyway. Dean also hadn't wanted to see that look in Sam's eye disappear, the one where he worshipped the ground Dean walked on. Dean remembered how much it had killed him to see Sam look at their Dad like that- like he was letting them down and was a fucking disappointment and piss poor excuse of a father. Dean didn't think he could survive being on the receiving end of that kind of contempt.

Besides, he'd never really been bothered by his constant brushes with the law. It had always been more than worth it to save someone's life at the expense of a night or two in the lockup, and Dean had spent the night worse places. He knows his way around inmates, around the prison system, knows how to get on with guards without looking like a pussy to the other guys, and how to get what he needs in such a tightly controlled environment.

Step number one in any prison situation?

Cigarettes.

OOO

Words: 370

Episode(s): 2.19


	10. Hopscotch

Hopscotch

[HOP-skoch]

_-verb _

1. To journey quickly and directly from one usually far place to another.

2. To move or pass through something, as a geographical area or a field of endeavor, making many brief stops.

_-noun_

1. A children's game in which a player tosses or kicks an object into one of several numbered sections of a diagram marked on the ground.

OOO

"You might want to close your eyes," Rani comments offhandedly, reaching out to grab his upper arm.

"Why-"

Dean is instantly on his knees, clutching at his stomach and dry heaving while his head attempts to split itself open and spill all over the sidewalk.

"Yeah," she offers, "that tends to happen. It's the shock of the transfer. Closing your eyes minimize the shock."

Dean would reply with a "_fuck you, BITCH,_" if he wasn't busy using all his energy to keep from hacking up his insides and passing out. He doesn't know how long it takes, but eventually he calms down enough to take a look around. Unsurprisingly, they're in a back alley, the towering cement buildings on either side nondescript enough that Dean could be in fucking Sydney for all he knew. He ignores the hand he's offered and pulls himself to his feet with only a little bit of seemingly drunken stumbling.

"Think you can walk?"

Dean tries out his patented "get fucked" look, but Rani is about as affected as a catatonic.

"Yeah," he bites out, and gestures sharply for her to lead the way.

The next thirty minutes are a near-jog to the warehouse district of whatever city they're in (though the more he looks around the more he's thinking Chicago), and Dean finally can't help himself.

"What the fucks the use of being a teleporter if you poof in an hour away from the lair?" he puffs. "Or did you somehow manage to forget where they parked?"

Rani barely spares him a glance, and when she answers her voice in infuriatingly even, "They've put up wards to make sure I can't get in."

She stops abruptly, tilting her head and studying a large cathedral complete with stained glass and gargoyles. "Ah, here we are. Now, shut up."

Dean manages not to hit her, but it's a near thing.

OOO

Episode(s): None

Words: 314


	11. Smithereens

Smithereens

[smith-uh-REENZ]

_-noun_

1. Small pieces; bits.

OOO

"Mother Fucker."

"Really, Dean. It isn't as bad as -"

"Have you even looked at the car? Do you have any idea how much it's going to take to put this back together? Hell, I'm not even sure I can."

"Ah, come on; you can fix anything with wheels."

"Sam, the frame's shot to hell. Every single window's been busted, the seats are thrashed, the engines been compressed into god-knows what kinda jumble- hell, even the radio's broken."

"I was thinking we could find another Impala somewhere and, I don't know, salvage the parts we need-"

"What, you think I can Frankenstein this heap back together? Sam, there's no way."

"What do you want to do, Dean? Buy a different car and just scrap the Impala completely?"

"What I want is to get out of here. Fixing the car's going to take a month, _minimum_."

"What's wrong with taking a month? It's not like we have anything impor…"

"We don't have anything important to do?"

"Dean, just-"

"Nothing IMPORTANT to do?"

"Dean-"

"What about finding that yellow-eyed sonuvabitch and making him fucking eat the Colt? What about getting you back to school?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh, and what did you mean, exactly?"

"It's been-Dean, it's been hard. I just thought we could take a break for a while. Bobby's pretty upset, too, you know, and well. It'd be nice, right? To just be still for a while. You can rebuild the car and well, rebuild…the car."

"…You are such a pathetic sap."

OOO

Episode(s): Between 2.01 and 2.02

Words: 254


End file.
